


Destined for Greatness

by et_tu_adashi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Deserves Better, Lance (Voltron) Dies, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Langst, Mention of Death, Past Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Sad Shiro (Voltron), Takes place during season 6, adam helps lance realize hes a badass, shiro and lance have a bonding moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 06:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26967289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/et_tu_adashi/pseuds/et_tu_adashi
Summary: Lance dies and when he wakes up in the astral plane, the last person he expects to see is Adam.Basically this fic entails Lance'e experience of dying, coming back alive, and him and Shiro talking about it.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 86





	Destined for Greatness

Lance knew he died, he remembered the all encompassing pain and then the nothingness that came soon after. The bright flash of light that encompassed him and red as he pushed Allura and blue out of the way. He knew that there was a strong chance of him dying while fighting as a paladin, he never thought it would happen though. He longed for his family and his home back on earth, Lance hoped to have at least lived long enough to make it back home.

Different hues of blues and purples encompassed Lance, as he looked around the empty plane. He was aware that there was a place for souls to live after death, but he didn’t realize how beautiful it would be. It made him feel a bit at peace, being in the astral plane. It looked so much like the stars he would stare off to every night, if he couldn’t be at the ocean, at least he can be among the stars.

“Lance?” A familiar voice called out from behind him, he turned his head, eyes widening as he saw the owner of the voice. It was Adam Wright, an old teacher he had back in the garrison when he was still training to be a cargo pilot. He was surprised to see his old mentor from his Garrison days, his heart dropping a bit with the thought that Adam was no longer on Earth. This was the only way he could ever see Adam now.

“I didn’t know you died” Lance said, still in disbelief to see his old mentor in the astral plane. Where did he come from? Why was he here, and why was he speaking with Lance? Lance and Adam were close back in the garrison days. Lance would often come to Adam after training lamenting about Keith and how he wanted to beat him to show Keith he wasn't all that. Adam was always supportive and believed in Lance and his dreams to be the best pilot, something that Lance appreciated deeply.

“Yeah, it was a botched mission, my ship crashed.” Adam chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

“What was the mission?”

“Well, there was this lead on the Galra, we were tracking them for sometime, after figuring out that they were the ones that were responsible for kidnapping Shiro, Matt, and Sam. I was flying out to go inspect a new lead when I got hit, I guess they figured it out.” Adam explained, Lance could see the turmoil of pain and acceptance in his eyes.

Lance was silent for a bit, death really was cruel and unforgiving.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered, breaking the silence.

“It’s okay, you never know when death will take you. But I enjoyed my life. I have no regrets. The important question is what are you doing here? Lance, how did you die?” Adam cocked his head looking at the younger boy.

“I was on a mission and Allura and I were repairing shield plates on this planet when there was a shortage in the generator and Allura and Blue were right under it and I didnt know what else to do so I pushed them out of the way and then I woke up here. ” Lance explained, the incident playing crystal clear in his mind as he did.

Adam looked at him speechless, he stared at the paladin with eyes full of pain.

“Lance you realize that you killed yourself.”

“It was either me or Allura.” Lance retorted, crossing his arms. He expected Adam to understand his reasoning for doing it. He thought out of anyone, at least Adam would be proud of him.

Adam scoffed, looking annoyed, “You are so selfless Lance, even to the end you would rather get hurt than have someone else hurt.”

“Well yeah, I can’t have Allura dying, she is so smart and she handles all the diplomacy parts and she does it well. I don't think we could do it without her. I dont really matter to the team, I’m more of a seventh wheel.” Lance lashed back, his tone full of frustration and hurt. He was tired of having to explain himself and why he did things. Constantly the team would push him out or belittle him and his ideas. Lance was tired of it, he loved being a part of voltron and being a paladin, but there is only so much a boy can take.

“And anyways, I kinda figured it would happen.” Lance mumbles, crossing his arms and looking away annoyed.

Adam was silent, only moving in closer to Lance. He raised his arm and smacked Lance across his head.

“Ow, what was that for?!” Lance yelled, rubbing the stinging spot where Adam hit him.

“For being an idiot, that’s why. Lance in my years of knowing you, you have shown the qualities of a great and strong leader. Even when you're not the one in charge you are there to support making sure everyone is okay and safe. You put everyone’s health and safety before your own and you do everything with the best intentions. I can't believe you can say these things about yourself when you just sacrificed yourself without a second thought.” Adam responded, annoyance still dripping in his voice. Yup, Lance definitely pissed him off.

“You say that but you don’t see how the team treats me. Pidge thinks I’m an idiot, Allura and Shiro don’t take anything I say seriously, Keith doesn't even listen, and Hunk, I mean I love him, but he sits there and says nothing. I feel like it's just me against them. I may be a part of Voltron, but I am not actually a part of Voltron.”

“Then prove them wrong.”

“I'm sorry?” Lance asked, confused by what was just spoken to him.

“Prove them wrong,” Adam repeated. “All of them. Go back and show all of them that they were stupid for doubting you. Your greatness is not up to other people, it is up to yourself. It’s their loss for not seeing how talented and strong you are. You are a valuable member of Voltron and so show them how much they really need you.”

“But what if you’re wrong and I'm really not valuable.”

“The only person who can hold you back is yourself. Don’t be selfless to the point of purposefully hurting yourself for others. I have seen what that does to a person, and it destroys them. Be strong and push on Lance.”

Adam smiled at Lance softly,

“Anyways, you are too young to die. You have the rest of your life to live and you deserve to enjoy it.” Adam added laughing a bit to try to lift up the mood.

The plane began to rumble. 

“Thank you, for believing in me.” Lance said, giving Adam a toothy grin. He knew what he had to do.

“Of course, you’ve always been one of my favorite students. Go get them sharp-shooter” Adam winked, flashing him a smile. 

_How did he know that I go by sharp-shooter?_

As Lance opened his mouth to question Adam about what he knew, a bright flash engulfed him, Adams' smiling face fading into the light. The next thing Lance saw was Allura looking down at him with a scared expression. He felt his body come back alive, his nerves flaring up in pain all as his body began to work again. He was so confused, was what happened with Adam all a dream? Lance gasped for air, breathing heavily as he looked up at Allura. Allura could do nothing but just smile at the paladin, happy to see him awake.

“You saved me.” Lance looked back at Allura, his thoughts recollecting and processing what had happened.

“Oh thank the gods, you’re alive.” Allura said, he could hear the mixture of happiness and sadness in her voice. Her words rang in her ears, _You’re alive._

Lance’s eyes widened, remembering what Adam had told him just earlier, “ _Lance you realize that you killed yourself._ ”

Even though Allura was speaking to him, he didn’t understand a word of what she was saying to him. It didn’t matter anyways, Lance had died. Even if Allura did bring him back from the astral plane. Everything that happened between him and Adam was real. Lance McClain, the Blue Paladin, just a boy from Cuba, had died and was resurrected. He didn’t even know where to begin to process any of this. The feelings he felt were so foreign to him, yet familiar at the same time.

Lance only snapped back to reality when he felt the princess shaking his body.

“Lance c’mon talk to me! Please Lance say anything.” She pleaded, tears piling like crystals in her blue eyes.

Lance looked at her blankly before turning his face away. He couldn’t stand to see her like this or to see her tears.

“I’m fine.” He said in a harsh tone, slowly getting up from her lap.

“Lance-” She pleaded, as she watched the boy stand up, his back facing her.

Lance cut her off, his voice sharp, cutting up Allura’s heart as he spoke.

“Don't tell anyone else about this. They don’t need to know."

He moved as far away from her as he possibly could. He longed for his bed, all he wanted to do was sleep and forget all of this happened.

\-----

Allura never spoke about Lance’s death again, despite how much she wanted to. But Lance had changed after the mission, and she respected his wishes.

Lance thought about the conversation he had with Adam constantly, trying to pick apart everything that really happened while he was in the astral plane. He spoke to no one about his death, not until Allura brought back Shiro from the Astral plane.

Lance was hesitant at first about talking to Shiro about the astral plane. Lance was only dead for a few hours at most while Shiro had been dead for an entire year. Lance could only begin to imagine what Shiro had gone through. This only made Lance have more questions that he wanted to ask Shiro. He waited until the next night after Shiro was brought back to talk to him about it. He found the black paladin by himself in the cockpit, looking out into the vastness of space before them. It looked so much like the astral plane, yet it was nothing like it at all.

Lance approached him, taking a deep breath before asking Shiro, “Hey Shiro can I talk to you ?”

Shiro turned and looked at him, giving the boy a forced smile.

“Yeah Lance, what do you need?”

“I wanted to talk to you about the uhhh astral plane.” Lance smiled awkwardly, he wasn’t not ready to talk to him at all, usually he was more prepared when speaking to people. This was not something that could wait though, Lance was dying to know. Shiro was taken aback, giving Lance a confused look. Swallowing before responding to the blue paladin,

“What do you wanna know about it?”

“I wanted to know if you saw anyone else when you were out there?”

“Why do you wanna know?” Shiro asked, his tone changing to be more hesitant than before.

“Well I..” Lance trailed off, unsure of how to exactly word that he died while trying to save Allura but was brought back and then never talked about it.

“Well, what? Lance why do you wanna know so much about the Astral Plane? I really don’t get why you are so interested or asking me. Honestly it’s kinda rude Lance, I was-”

“I died okay.” Lance blurted out, cutting off Shiro.

Shiro looked at Lance with wide eyes as he processed what Lance said to him.

“You what?! How?! Why did no one tell me?!” Shiro exclaimed, his posture and mood changing completely. He was angry about that, though he had no right to be angry.

“Well I didn’t really wanna talk to anyone about it. Allura knows but that’s because she brought me back to life. I asked her not to speak of it though. It would be better if the team doesn’t know anyway. There are bigger and more important things to dote over. My death can be dealt with after we defeat the Galra.” Lance explained, standing his ground. It was his decision on how his death was dealt with, not Allura’s and definitely not Shiro’s. Lance had enough of being pushed around and walked on. Shiro nodded, before speaking again.

“How did you die though”

“There was a glitch in the defense shields of a planet which caused one of the shield panels to explode, I pushed Allura out of the way and took the blast.”

“I see.” Shiro said, going quiet after. Lance knew he was thinking, he could tell that Shiro didn’t know whether or not to yell at him or praise him.

“To answer your original question, no I didn’t see anyone when I was out on the astral plane. It was just me, sometimes black would talk to me but for the most part I was by myself. Why, did you see someone?” Shiro asked, tilting his head to the side. He was curious to know if Lance had a similar experience to him. He wondered if Lance saw someone.

Lance, on the other hand, toyed with the thought about mentioning Adam to Shiro. Lance was aware of Shiro’s and Adam’s relationship together. He remembered talking to Adam about it sometimes, though Adam didn’t mention Shiro after he left for Keroborus. Lance knew it would hurt him, but Shiro deserved to know. He had a right to know that Adam was dead. It was the least Lance could do for Shiro and Adam.

“I saw Adam. When I died I woke up in the astral plane and Adam was standing there behind me. He told me about how he died and that I died. He told me I had to continue on no matter what and no matter what people say. I couldn’t say much else because Allura brought me back. At first I believed that I had dreamt of him and I only passed out, but I remember the feeling of death and the pain from the blast and the sudden nothingness.”

Shiro was no longer looking at Lance, instead his eyes were glued to the floor. The black paladin was quiet, resting his elbows on his knees, his face pressed to his hands. Lance was frozen, unsure of what to say or do. He thought that at least Shiro would have seen Adam, but Shiro was alone. Lance knew what it meant and so did Shiro.

“You know when he said don’t expect me to be there when you come back, I didn’t think he really meant it like that.” Shiro whispered, still staring at the floor.

“I’m so sorry Shiro-”

“Lance, don’t,” Shiro said, raising up his hand to cut him off. “There is nothing to be sorry for. Adam has his mind made up, and it’s something I have to deal with. But how did he die?”

“Are you sure you wanna know?”

“Yes, please Lance.” Shiro lifted his head and made eye contact with Lance. His gray eyes were red, tears were still falling down his face. Yet he remained poised as ever, something he has always been good at. Lance admired him for that, though secretly wishing that Shiro would just drop the act.

“He was out on a mission, the garrison was tipped off about the Galra. They knew that Galra captured you and the team on Kerborous. They received a tip about you guys and Adam was sent out to investigate. His ship was shot down and he died.” Lance responded, trying to keep his voice steady and neutral. He also missed Adam, a lot. Adam was in his corner and always supporting him even when Lance had no one, he meant everything to Lance as well.

“He never stopped looking.” Shiro whispered, hope dancing across his teary eyes for a split second.

Lance wasn’t sure if he was meant to hear Shiro’s soft comment, so he bit back his tongue. He knew Shiro was feeling a lot of emotion and Lance knew backing off and giving Shiro space was the right thing to do. Shiro stood up, letting out a defeated sigh and put his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

“Thank you Lance for telling me. I appreciate it a lot. I have to be alone now though. If you excuse me.” Shiro said smiling, the tears still streaming down his face.

Lance nodded, and watched as the older boy left the room, leaving Lance alone with his thoughts. Lance looked out at the stars, wondering if Adam was out there watching them now.

**Author's Note:**

> Cut to Adam beating up Shiro on the Astral Plane for being an ass to Lance and for making him feel like shit. 
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed the fic. If you wanna follow me Im on twitter @ettuleo . I post a lot about my love for adashi there.


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